The National Football Team of Western Armenia is a football team representing Armenian representatives of indigenous peoples, primarily from the region of Western Armenia, which is located on the territory that has officially been part of Turkey since 1923.
The governing body, the Football Federation of Western Armenia, was formed in 2015 and joined the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (ConIFA) on June 1 of that year. [2] The first ever game was played on January 6, 2016, when Western Armenia XI played against Olympic de Marseille (CFA), the reserve team of the leading French football club. [3] Vahagn Militosyan scored both goals with the score 3–2. [four]
10 days after the team’s first ever game, West Armenia was selected at the 3rd ConIFA General Meeting as one of the 12 participants in the 2016 ConIFA World Cup, which will be held in Abkhazia in May and June. [5] In the draw for the competition, the team was selected in Group A along with the hosts and the Chagos Islands. [6] The first full-fledged international of Western Armenia against the Chagos Islands ended in the team inflicting a record defeat on 12–20 Chagos [7], and then lost 1-0 against Abkhazia in the final group game. [8] This was enough for the team to reach the quarter finals, where they played in the Punjab football team.
Recent acquisitions of the West Armenia team include Levon Kurchikyan, striker of the German Kleve team, Ivan Yagan, striker of the Belgian Circle Brugge club, and several Ararat club members. Earlier, the team was joined by the ex-midfielder of the youth team of Armenia, Swiss player Servette Grach Yagan, German Wegberg midfielder David Azin, goalkeeper of the Belgian team Voluv Zaventem Tigran Khanjaryan, etc.
Most players in the national team play in European clubs, which allows us to talk about a good level of the team. Many experts consider the team of Western Armenia to be the favorite of the upcoming World Cup in Abkhazia. The players of the Armenian team have extensive experience in football, but joint matches in this composition have not yet been held. Some of them played for the French Marseille, the national team of Libya, the forward of the team - captain of Yerevan "Ararat". And goalkeeper Levon Minasyan is a part of the “Alashkert” main squad, who literally won the Armenian Championship last week.